A bottle case of this category is known through DE-OS No. 2914993. The advantage of such case is that bottle carriers of paper or cardboard containing groups of bottles can be placed in the bottle case so that bottle carriers for one or more rows of bottles can be used. For spaces between bottles such bottle carrier has only bottom openings with no cut-outs in the sidewall. This is very beneficial to the stability of the bottle carrier and moreover, the sidewalls of the bottle carrier provide advertising surfaces throughout the circumference.
Existing bottle cases for twenty Euro-bottles of a diameter of 70.5 mm in which the bottles are arranged in five rows of four bottles each have outside dimensions of 400 mm.times.330 mm. The present invention is directed to solution of the problem that with the bottles standing in straight rows, the outside dimensions of the case can be reduced to 400 mm.times.300 mm so that the bottle cases can be closely stacked when using pallets of normal dimensions. Efforts to solve this problem have been made from many sides. Heretofore, all efforts to arrange the bottles in straight rows have failed because the sidewalls of the bottle case must be made too thin. Such a case can be constructed and also produced but will not withstand the rough treatment to which bottle cases are subjected not only in packing and unpacking machines but also in transport and in being piled high in storage. The insufficient stability of the very thin sidewalls cannot be avoided through special stabilizing measures, such for example as a special formation of the dividing walls inside the case and special construction of the joining of these dividing walls with the side walls. This results in a bottle case in which in the inside of the case the bottle spaces are not arranged in a straight row. Through Honeycomb arrangement of the dividing walls inside the bottle case, sufficient stability of the side walls and width of 300 mm can be obtained, but this arrangement of the bottle cases not in a straight line has the objection that the gripping heads in the packing and unpacking machines must be altered and then difficulties arise in gripping bottles fed to the packing machine in straight lines.